Sustainable finance and ESG integration are fast becoming a global preoccupation for the banking sector. As ESG reporting shifts from niche to mainstream and begins to have balance sheet implications, investors are raising challenging questions on how ESG performance is assessed, managed, and reported on across core banking business units. From corporate governance and board composition to loan portfolio credit quality, new data is driving a shift in approach to ESG integration and reporting across jurisdictions.

This unique webinar will dig into the details of how ESG risks and opportunities can have material impacts on bank balance sheets, investor returns and the long-term financial health of the global economy. The discussion will consider key ESG trends in the banking sector from the perspective of reporting banks, investors, and one of the world’s largest investment data analysts. Join us to learn how responsible investment and corporate governance policies are helping to raise professional and ethical banking standards, and how action on ESG themes is evolving in a time of market turbulence.

Join us on this webinar to find out how investors are assessing ocean risks like acidification, biodiversity loss, and plastics pollution, and how leaders plan to align their portfolios with principles for a sustainable blue economy. Ahead of G20 and G7 meetings this summer, it is an important time for investors to discuss tools for mobilising private capital to support a sustainable, climate-secure Blue Economy. Speakers will also consider approaches to modelling the investment implications of the phase-out of fossil fuel-based plastics and other unsustainable activities.

The transition from a conventional, extraction-focused ocean economy to a sustainable, climate-secure Blue Economy is a tremendous economic and investment opportunity for all investors. This unique webinar will bring together leading investors to debate the risks and opportunities for profiting from ocean resources in a sustainable manner while unlocking long-term value into the future.

How will investors respond to green fiscal policy and a new wave of central bank action on climate targets? Join us to find out.

Following the G20 Osaka Summit, RI is bringing together global central banking leaders and investment banking macroeconomists to consider how ESG and climate risk integration into central banking and monetary policy across G20 member states could influence the investment decision-making of global investors.

As fiscal policy makers and macroprudential regulators within the Network for Greening the Financial System get down to business, investors are waking up to the potential for climate-aligned monetary policy that could nudge economies towards alignment with the 2 degree targets agreed upon in the Paris Agreement.

From the integration of climate risk management into the work of supervisory authorities to the incorporation of sustainability criteria into central banks’ portfolio management functions for the world’s largest treasuries, many G20 central banks are moving faster than the investment community?

Low-carbon and multifactor investing have registered rapid growth in recent years but their combination in a single strategy represents a challenge as popular factors tilt portfolios towards carbon-related assets and carbon-intensive activities. This webinar introduces a portfolio construction that is consistent with the support of the transition to a low carbon economy, materially reduces exposure to transition risks and protects scientifically validated sources of financial performance.

Who is it for:
- Ethical and socially responsible investors who wish to dissociate from companies incompatible with the transition to a low carbon economy and further promote the transition by reorienting their investments towards less carbon-intensive activities and companies
- Any investor wishing to combine the benefits of multifactor investment strategies with ambitious mitigation of Climate Change risks.

From pioneering Clean Energy Bond programs to flexing their stewardship muscle on key social issues during the proxy season, public sector pensions are waking up to their influence in the capital markets. This unique webinar will explore the market power of public sector pension funds in accelerating the energy transition, enhancing corporate governance standards at the world’s largest corporations, and in addressing key social issues holding back economic growth - inequality and systematic under-investment in human capital development, clean energy and transport infrastructure.

Join us to learn how state and municipal treasurers are responding to key ESG themes, and how public pension funds are assessing the reality of sustainable investing. Find out who is leading the way, and what lessons have been learned en route to more robust ESG integration and long-term value creation.

Blended finance and the SDGs: examining how public and private capital can work together for positive societal and financial outcomes

The OECD defines blended finance as “the strategic use of development finance for the mobilization of additional finance towards the SDGs in developing countries.”
This RI webinar will drill down into key areas of the blended finance discussion.
If achieving the SDGs requires a massive infrastructure build-out to provide clean water and sanitation (SDG6), affordable and clean energy (SDG7), and health centres and hospitals in urban and rural areas (SDG3), how can the blended finance of public and private money actually do this, and through what structures/terms?
Expert speakers will present case studies on the integration of blended finance structures into existing investment strategies and explain how it can yield a positive return both for investors and communities.

Speakers

Sharon Spiegel, Chief, Policy Analysis & Development Branch, Financing for Sustainable Development Office, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations

Climate change poses clear and material risks to real estate assets with the potential to impact return profiles. Real estate investing has historically lacked the appropriate tools to allow investors to assess their exposure to climate risk and to integrate it effectively in their investment strategies.

To help address this gap, FTSE Russell developed the FTSE EPRA Nareit Green Indexes to allow investors to identify real estate companies with strong sustainability performance. These indexes are a sustainability-focused extension to the FTSE EPRA Nareit Global Real Estate Index Series, a leading series of listed real estate benchmarks with approximately US$341billion of assets tracking this series.*

* Data as of December 31, 2017 as reported on April 2, 2018 by eVestment for institutional assets, Morningstar for retail mutual funds, insurance products, and ETFs, and additional passive assets directly collected by FTSE Russell.

· Listed Real Estate market trends in Developed markets, specifically Europe and North America
· Facing the sustainable real estate challenge – what is important to know
· The world’s largest asset class – addressing the investment data gaps
· Real Estate Indexes have the ‘green’ light - case for integrating sustainability considerations in Real Estate benchmarks
· Building for a green economy future – where to from here
· Q&A from the audience

Three years ago, the United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a global call to action for positive change. Ever since, the global investment community has become increasingly eager to achieve some kind of “SDG alignment”.

Near the anniversary of the establishment of the SDGs, this RI/ISS-ESG webinar provides an overview of how impact investing connects to the SDGs, and how investors are measuring effectiveness.

- What drives investors to choose the SDGs as a framework for investing and how are they approaching this?

- What tools are available to identify and measure companies’ contributing to the SDGs? Should SDG investments be focusing on products & services or on companies’ operations?

- What are the challenges to investing in the SDGs? Are the SDG even investable in mainstream investment, given the fact that many of the SDGs and targeting problems in emerging markets that are probably rather solved by modest projects rather than large listed corporates?

- Is there a risk of SDG-washing and sticking SDG labels on existing mainstream investments? How can this be prevented?

Lending books are arguably where the rubber hits the road for originating sustainable projects, but how do banks and other lenders identify ESG risks in loan books, and stimulate opportunities to lend to sustainable projects?

In this sessions, our experts will discuss a number of initiatives that have been started to address mortgage lending, price adjustments and assessing risk exposure.

Speakers confirmed:

Jakob Thomä, Director, 2° Investing Initiative

Florence Palandri, Climate Finance Analyst, 2° Investing Initiative

Roland Mees, Director of Sustainable Finance, ING Bank

Luca Bertalot, Secretary General of European Mortgage Federation, European Covered Bond Council

A growing number of investors are screening out companies from lending portfolios because of exposure to climate change and other sustainability risks, but sovereign portfolios are often not assessed in the same way. This webinar looks at why: how serious are the sovereign default risks arising from ESG, how can they be quantified, and do investors have a responsibility to engage with governments on policy through bond buying?

A successful ESG stewardship strategy requires investors to proactively address ESG risks in their portfolios. Over the last three years, climate change has become a top ESG shareholder proposal issue. Many shareholder proponents encourage companies to align their reporting with the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, set GHG emission reduction targets, conduct 2°C scenario analyses and disclose on climate impact. However, the percentage of companies providing such disclosures remains generally very low.

This webinar gives an overview of emerging climate change topics from the 2018 proxy season and how investors can proactively identify climate-related risks and opportunities in their portfolios.

- What are the takeaways from the 2018 proxy season and Climate Week NYC 2018?

- Are we any closer to meaningful scenario analysis?

- How is data developing to help investors capture physical climate risk?

- Where are we at with TCFD reporting?

- How important is collaboration on these issues, through things like ClimateAction100+?

Hear from the UN body that is evolving the SDGs 3 years on, on the Ethical Finance 2018 conference pre-event webinar.

Ahead of the Ethical Finance 2018 conference on October 22/23 in Edinburgh, meet the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the lead UN development agency for implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with governments.

The UNDP is a supporting partner for the Ethical Finance 2018 Conference, along with the UK and Scottish governments.

On this webinar, Responsible Investor's Managing Editor will talk to Gail Hurley, UNDP Policy Specialist for Development Finance, about the work the UNDP is doing on driving the SDGs with policy makers, and about how they see the role of investors within that.

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to put your questions to UNDP about the evolution of the world’s biggest sustainability initiative!

It’s time to recognize the ‘elephant in the room’: A corporate, a data provider, an asset owner and an investment manager talk ‘elephants’

Corporate: How is the production of ESG data evolving at the corporate level: what’s required, what’s optional, what’s the quality like and how is it changing?

Thomson Reuters: What data are clients seeking? How ESG data is filtered, aggregated and scored, and based on what standards and definitions. How can data gaps be overcome? Examples of current interesting investment-relevant data.

Asset Owner and Asset Manager: How are portfolio managers translating ESG research data into investment decisions: what’s working and what needs improving?

One year after the launch of the final report of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), hundreds of organisations are working on disclosing climate-related financial information, and a myriad of resources are being developed to support them in the process.

In May, the TCFD and CDSB launched the TCFD Knowledge Hub, the first online platform dedicated to the latest resources, tools and insights on the recommendations. This webinar will provide an overview of the platform and help organisations:
• Understand how the Hub can help you find the right resources to disclose according to the TCFD recommendations;
• Find out more about some of the key resources currently available on the website;
• Understand how your experience can be shared on the platform to help others improve their reporting practices.

Managing risk on two sides: The unique challenges of integrating ESG for the insurance industry

【How ESG factors are influencing risk assessments: climate change, capital modelling and extreme events】
· How are recent weather-related events, which are being linked to climate change, changing insurance pricing, coverage and market sentiment? Are ‘extreme’ events no longer so extreme?
· What are the major ESG factors now that are influencing underwriting and capital provision at insurers?
· Tightening regulation on ESG issues and its impact on the insurance industry.
· Is the historical data available to utilise ESG factors as a performance predictor or gauge of risk quality?
· The development of new ESG risk-specific insurance products. Differences in the above trends globally.

【Divestment, investment and the move to ESG benchmarking】
· Why are insurers getting on the front foot around divestment in areas such as coal or tobacco?
· Insurers as investors: how this asset owner sector is shaping its long-term allocations with ESG factors in mind.
· What are the investment tools insurers are using to do so?

Responsible Investor is proud to present a series of three webinars focused on European sustainable investment policy in the context of the High-Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance (HLEG) and the stated objectives of EU Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis.

This is a crucial time for EU policy on ESG. But how will it affect you… and your clients?

There is also a plan to create a common language and classification system for sustainable investments. This ‘taxonomy’ will impact the investment landscape and could foster the construction of green portfolios: but what will it look like and who will oversee it?

Speakers:
- Eila Kreivi, Head of Capital Markets, European Investment Bank
- Yao Wang, Professor and Director General, International Institute of Green Finance, Deputy Secretary General of Green Finance, Green Finance Committee of China Society for Finance and Banking
- David Harris, Group Head of Sustainable Business, London Stock Exchange Group, Head of Sustainable Investment, FTSE Russell

• The EU High-Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance (HLEG)
• The European Commission’s policy objectives

Responsible Investor is proud to present a series of three webinars focused on European sustainable investment policy in the context of the High-Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance (HLEG) and the stated objectives of EU Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis.

This is a crucial time for EU policy on ESG. But how will it affect you… and your clients?

The most controversial idea that has been floated is for banks to get lower capital charges if they invest in green projects and companies. This throws up a lot of questions, not least the role of securitisation and the broader implications for responsible investment.

• The EU High-Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance (HLEG)
• The European Commission’s policy objectives

Responsible Investor is proud to present a series of three webinars focused on European sustainable investment policy in the context of the High-Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance (HLEG) and the stated objectives of EU Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis.

This is a crucial time for EU policy on ESG. But how will it affect you… and your clients?

Mandates are the anchors of the investment chain and the European Commission is proposing to integrate sustainability into the duties of asset managers. This presents a pivotal moment for ESG and we will drill down into all the implications. What would a pan-European set of investor duties mean in practice – and is it even possible?

From the publishers of Responsible-Investor.com, the RI Webinars channel focuses on responsible investing, ESG and sustainable finance for institutional investors and companies. We also produce a number of industry leading in-person events including: RI Europe (London), RI Americas (New York) and RI Asia (Tokyo)